Our Worn Out Farewells
by WIWJ
Summary: AU from Spoilers for Dead or Alive.. An idea I couldn't fit into 'Lies'. Marv can get them both 'back in' what's that mean for those left behind? A sad mostly M/F centered story. Angst. Sex. Trickery and Greif. Character Death and Distruction. Complete!
1. Chapter 1

"So." Her eyes were fixed straight ahead, studying the shadows from the light streaming through the open balcony doors. "How long will we get?"

Michael swallowed, his eyes still fixed on the telephone in front of him.

"What do you mean Fi?"

"I mean how's this going to go down? I mean.. Jesse gets back in and they call him back to his office and give him back his little gold name plaque and his coffee cup." She stopped to swallow, her jaw tensing fiercely. "I mean do we get to say goodbye this time or does the black helicopter just sets down on the roof of the loft and take you away to far off lands while Sam and I cheerily wave like the munchkins in the Wizard of Oz?"

"I don't know, Fi." His voice is even, detached. Almost cool. She nods, swiping at her eyes. "What do you want me to say?"

"Why would I expect you to say anything?" She sniffed huffily. "You don't do sentiment. You don't do remorse." Her voice faltered just a little and she clambered to her feet and made her way towards the balcony. He kept his gaze down. "You run off into the night and let everyone else handle the messy details."

"I'm sorry Fi." He whispered almost sounding sorry. Strickler's voice sounded in his head.

_**You don't get to have the girl and the job.**_

"So am I." She breathed, walking forward and pressing her hands against the railing.

_**She doesn't fit into your future.**_

His future. Getting back in. I had been four long years. Four long years of his mother's incessant chatter. Four years of Sam's jovial enthusiasm roping him into_ easy _job after_ easy _job_. _Four years of Fiona. He finally lifted his eyes to the balcony. She had her arms wrapped tight around her self now. He wondered how someone so small could be such a force in the world. Such a force in his world.

He pushed back from the counter and made his way over to her, slipping his arms over her own. She stiffened and for a second he thought she was going to pull away. But it was only a second before her head dropped back and her fingers wove though his. His mind started and stopped a hundred different arguments. He'd never hid his intentions from her, never mislead her. He certainly didn't want to leave her behind, but Strickler was right about one thing: a_ 'gun dealing bomb-making girlfriend'_ wasn't something that went along with the job.

"You're mother told me I could stay at the house while she was gone." Fiona said softly.

"Gone?"

"Didn't she tell you? She's going to stay with Nate and Ruth for Christmas, probably until the baby comes." Fiona took a deep breath. "I'm guessing she doesn't come back."

_Christmas_. Fiona's family had sent cards, photos of her gangly Irish brother's and petite women with thick hips and and red headed children. If everything went according to plan he'd be leaving her just in time for her to spend Christmas alone. He bit back telling her she'd still have Sam.

"Maybe _Sam _and I will get together for eggnog." She whispered almost hatefully. He pressed his cheek against the side of her head and started to rock her unconsciously from side to side.

"I mean how long can you really stay in anyway? Ten, fifteen more years?" Her quiet voice rose a few octaves. "Seeing as we're apparently not fit to have children anyway.."

"What is your obsession with children these days?" He couldn't help but wonder aloud.

"It would be nice though Michael. The idea of it anyway. Having something to hold onto? Some part of you.. a family of my own." She mused. "Something for when I have nothing else."

He thought of Paul Anderson. _The Ghost of Christmas Future_, Sam had called him.

_**All you really have in the end is your stories.**_

His brain went off on a tangent after that, wandering on about how any enemy past present or future could use his child against him. He'd done it himself enough times to know that it could be done. He thought of Victor and the pictures of his family he'd had stuffed under a boat house mattress. His arms clamped a little tighter around Fiona.

"If I can come back.." He whispered softly, halfheartedly. He didn't really know if it was true, how he'd feel once he was really back, far from Miami _and Fiona_.

"Shut up Michael." She whispered, her voice finally betraying her with a short sob and she spun in his arms. He held her, fiercely, as if he could mold her into him, making it impossible to pry them apart. "Shut up and just make love to me before the damn helicopter comes." He kissed her, his hands moving quickly over as much of her skin as he could find. They fumbled with buttons and ties and straps until the bed was benieth them.

**If you remember, I made you diner that night**.

He had made her dinner, he'd also done this. A one-sided attempt to put everything he had into one last night. One last attempt to show her what he couldn't bring himself to tell her. Only this time it wasn't one sided. And this time his heart wouldn't accept that it _was_ the last time. How many times had they said goodbye in the four years since he'd woken up to her foot up his ass in a Miami motel room? Four? Five? Maybe more. Maybe too many times for them to have desperate sex with the balcony doors wide open and the risk of Sam or Jesse or his mother or they company themselves to walk in and watch them.

But they did it anyway. _**Just in case**_. Fiona had said once. Once in one of the millions of times he'd been whisked or pulled or lured away by the idea of the job more than the job itself.

But this time. This was his best chance yet, and he clung to that as Fiona's slim nimble fingers encircled his tight shaft and pressed the pad of her thumb into the spot that made his knees feel week. He countered her move from his newly buckled position. V-ing the tip of his tongue against her sharpened nipple in long strokes, while palming the other breast carefully like a paper mache sculpture.

She groaned and he swapped sides as she desperately wiggled in an attempt to get him pinned onto the bed.

Aggressiveness was not usually something Fiona lacked during sex, but the looming sadness and prospected loneliness left her almost limp against him as he refused to be dropped to the mattress. Instead he lifted her hips to his flat abs, holding her back at the exaggerated arch and claiming her.

Michael couldn't see it any other way as she cried out her arms sliding down his like he'd killed her. He pressed her body closer to his catching her wild eyes before wrapping his hand around the base of her skull and forcing her body to mold into his. Her head dropped to his shoulder with a thud and just as quickly her teeth sunk mercilessly into the soft skin of where his neck and shoulder met. He clung to her, pumping into her in slow deliberate strokes. Her hands came back to life, her nails raking up his arms until the pads of her fingers left bruised circles against his shoulders

"Fiona.." It was half way between a grunt and a command. He wanted to say it. It sat there in the front of his brain waiting and wanting to be said. He wanted to say it almost as much as he knew he couldn't. Too cliché, too,,, mean. Besides, she knew.

As his name left her throat as a plea, a challenge, he wondered if she was fighting the same battle. He lifted them up, dropping her back against the mattress with a need to go deeper as she convulsed and came hard around him. It was a cry, a sob really as his body trembled and his arms buckled as he dropped to the bed tucking her into him as if to protect her from this.

"Tell me." She whimpered. "Please just tell me this won't be the last night." He shushed her, cooing breathlessly, letting his fingers play over her face, into her hair down the sides of her throat. "Please Michael tell me you'll find a way!"

She was desperate and angry and heartbroken and in the rare moments when she let him see this in her it melted some part of him that he had worked very hard to keep frozen.

"I promise you." He heard himself said before pulling away and clutching the side of her face. "I promise, I'll find it." He nodded his head at her fighting with the emotion he couldn't let go of. "I promise."

_**So do yourself a favor and just forget the past..**_

It shot across his mind just how it had shot out of his mouth when he'd killed Strickler.

_Fiona is not my past_. He kissed her forehead, pulling her tight against him.

"I'll find a way."


	2. Chapter 2

He kept his word. He found a way. Michael would say that he didn't, but Fiona disagreed. She had made sure he'd kept his word.

She knew he wouldn't have left if he knew what she'd done. She didn't tell him how she'd meticulously counted as she stared at the calendar in the days before he'd spoken to Marv. . He didn't know about how she'd googled and read 'How to get pregnant: THIS MONTH!' over and over again while he and Jesse went to DC. He didn't know that she'd bought the three pack of the First Response ovulation testing kit that came with two complementary pregnancy tests right after Sam called her to tell her it was done. They were back in. He was going back in.

When the black helicopter turned out to be a plane ticket and a telephone number followed quickly by a hand delivered dossier of what ever super spy task Michael was off to preform now she'd excused herself and gone into the bathroom to switch the spermicide riddled condoms with the non poision ones she'd poked holes in with the tip of the safety pin she'd pinned to the hem of her skirt.

By the time Michael left for wherever, Fiona was readily hunched over the toilet bowl by eight am each morning.

On the third day she passed up Sam's freshly purchased coffee before shakily drinking her body's liquid weight in water he'd sighed softly and asked her how far along she was.

He swallowed hard when she answered before nodding and grabbing a box of saltines from the pantry and taking his phone into the bedroom. Madelyn was home by New Years Eve.

By Easter they'd renovated and painted a nursery in the sun room and Sam had moved into the garage apartment. On her birthday Fiona received a single white rose pierced through the top of a blueberry yogurt on the doorstep of the house. Sam had held her arms behind her back to keep her from hurting herself as she'd kicked out the windows in the Charger. Screaming at her absent lover at the top of her lungs until she'd dropped like a stone and started to sob. He'd scooped her up like a child and started back towards the house.

"Hormones!" He'd quipped with a smile to a concerned neighbor who'd stuck his head around the fence to see what all the commotion was about. "You know what they say about Pregnant women!"

It had been when Jesse came around about help with a job that the secret had been revealed. Porter paused long enough to replace the glass in the Charger while Sam used a shop vac on the driveway and Madelyn took Fiona shopping for baby clothes.

Sam knew by the uneasy awkwardness of Jesse's good bye that Michael would quickly find out that his trigger happy ex-girlfriend was seven and a half months along.

Sam had briefly wondered if he'd sent a baby name book cipher or just an encrypted message. Either way Michael had called her right away.

"Fi." He'd whispered mournfully, sorrowfully into the shoddy crackling phone connection. "Jesus Fiona what did you do?"

"I gave my self a reason Michael." She'd whispered harshly. "A reason to wake up in the morning."

"I'll be there as soon as I can." He'd said sharply.

"Don't bother. We don't need you." She'd said coolly, handing Sam back the phone. He watched her march out of the room and into the nursery before he sighed longingly into the receiver.

"Oh..bother." He almost ordered. "We need you, Mikey."

…...

They held a baby shower, complete with pink and blue balloons. Nate and Ruth and baby Francesca flew in from Vegas to celebrate Francie's cousin.

Fiona had cried when Madelyn had handed her a container of little green army men with a note that said, _Just be yourself_.

Sam installed a baby seat in the Charger and Jesse had come around to help him 'baby proof' the weapons shed and put doors and child locks on the metal shelves Fiona kept the chemicals on.

They debated a long time the fate of the C-4 before deciding to bury most of it in an air-tight box behind Sam's garage apartment with a very heavily pregnant Fiona balking about the lack of access until Jesse bought her a fire safe big enough for one or two bricks for under her bed.

When Sam was sure the house was no longer a gun packed tinder box, he turned to Fiona with a wide gesture of his arms and a smile.

"You may now give birth."

She kicked him in the shins.

…...

Fiona locked herself in her bedroom when Michael showed up at five am on a Sunday morning looking every bit the secret agent he'd been so desperate to re-become. Sam had almost shot him by accident, but the safety locks he'd installed on his pistol still confused him when he wasn't fully conscious. He was pretty sure Fi was wide awake when she smacked him in the back with the Louisville Slugger Nate had given her for the baby.

Madelyn doted, smoothing her hands repeatedly down his shoulders and hugging him. Sam had said wordlessly in a chair drinking a beer and casting glances at Fiona's door. Michael lowered himself gingerly to the table in front of his friend. They stared wordlessly for a long uncomfortable second as Axe fought down the faint hints of anger over his own abandonment before he could even turn his thoughts towards Fiona's.

"I can't thank you for what you've done here Sam." Michael whispered slowly. "How you've taken care of them."

The old Navy Seal took a long slow breath and handed his buddy his half drunken beer before standing up. He dropped his hand firmly on the younger man's shoulder with a loud clap.

"We've taken care of each other." He sighed. "The key to her door is in the cabinet over the microwave. Be careful though, she's faster with the safety than I am."

…...

She'd been sitting Indian style in the corner of his old bedroom when he found her. Her hands folded neatly and gun free over the round protruding mass that her stomach had become. He'd been on his knees after her batting practice and hadn't gotten a good look at her in the living room. She was breathtakingly beautiful and he couldn't remember any of the lines he'd rehearsed on the four flights and six days he'd spent trying to get here.

_I have a situation at home. _He kept telling every one who would listen for nearly two months. His handlers, his assets, his clients, his cabbies.. anyone. _I have to get home._

Now he was here and the reality of his _situation_ was looking up at him with large, round, glossy eyes.

"Fiona." He finally muttered dropping to the bed like his strings had been cut.

"Don't think these tears are for you." She sniffled. "It's the hormones. I cry over anything. I cried over plastic toy soldiers and yogurt and a little girl chasing a piece of paper down the street when it blew out of her hand." She sniffed again, wiping at her face with the back of her hand. "I'm not crying for you Michael. Don't you dare think that I am."

He slid off the bed and onto his knees until he could sit beside her against the wall.

"They're not for you." She choked quietly. "None of this is for you."

"Okay." He soothed, reaching out carefully like she might explode and laying his hand on top of hers. "Okay."

"I told you not to come." She hissed. "I told you-."

"I had to." His monotones emotionless droll voice broke something in her and she started to yell.

"That is _exactly_ why I told you not to. I am not something you _have_ to do Michael! I am not a chore! I am not an obligation!"

"I WANTED to." He said loudly, his eyes squinting shut and opening moist and full of the things that made her love him. The very things that had gotten her to this point, pregnant and sobbing on the floor of his mother's house. "I _wanted_ to be here with you!" She stopped cold and he lifted his other hand to her face, his expression nearly breaking for half an instant when he remembered how soft and perfect it felt against his palm. "I want to be here _for_ you." His eyes dropped to her midsection, poking out from beneath the pale peach pearl colored silk of her nightshirt. "Both of you." His voice did nothing to hold back his sudden realization of the other person in the room. The baby, seeming to know the importance of the moment, shifted inside it's mother. "Both of you."

"Michael." She whispered, pleaded like she had almost nine months before, slowly creeping onto his lap until he could cradle her against his chest and tuck her head beneath her chin where it belonged. His eyes clamped shut and he held on for dear life.

…...


	3. Chapter 3

He hadn't given her a lot of choices, and he knew that. He knew that and that was why he was trying not to be angry at her.

She couldn't have gone home. That was ruined for her because of him, because she'd loved him. She'd said it had changed her, what they'd done in Miami and when he thought about it he knew it had. She didn't see the world like she had. She couldn't return to the careers she'd had. What was she going to do?

His mother had Nate and an expectant grandchild in Vegas. She had Sam and the house and the Charger. That would be it from then on out. Sam and side jobs, phone calls and visits from his mother.

He'd left her and she'd found away to keep him.

How was he supposed to blame her for not wanting to be alone?

…...

"You could have gotten a boyfriend." He said irritated. The third day he'd been home from 'wherever', he had decided they should talk about it. "Gotten married. Had a baby_ that _way." They'd been sitting in the Charger, as much to escape from Maddy's watchful glare as anything else.

"You don't marry someone when you love someone else." She said flatly, staring out the windshield as his gaze remained fixed on the infant seat in the back.

"I can't just come back Fi it's not that easy."

"You're right you can't just come back. I don't want you to come back." She pressed her lips together and swallowed. His head whipped around to look at her, she slowly moved her neck like it was attached to a long metal pole. "You really think I want you to come back just because of this?" She opened her hands around her abdomen like parenthesizes, her head bobing down for emphasis. "So what? You can leave her in four years when you get tired of her?"

"Her?" Michael softly broke the silence.

"_Or him_. I didn't find out."

"You have been seeing a doctor right?" He whispered, his chest moving in big long ups and downs while he spoke.

"Of course." She hissed. "Do you really think Sam and your mom wouldn't have made me if I wasn't?" She traced her thumb over her maternity tank top. "I just didn't find out."

"I still can't.." He sighed. "I can't believe you did this."

"There have been times Michael.." She told him, her eyes returning to the hollow, straight ahead stare. "I have had a hard time believing it my self."

"Did you stop for one second to think about how I would feel?" He asked, the bitterness seeping past his attempt to keep it hidden.

"No." Her melodious tone enchanted him for a second before her eyes once again snapped to his. "Did you?"

Touché. He thought quickly as she blinked at him.

"Of course I did." It sped harshly from his mouth before he could stop it.

"Good for you then. You at least thought it through before implodinged my life." She enunciated each word sharply with her fiery eyes before looking away and singing. "I guess that makes you better than me. Congratulations."

He wanted to grab her, shake her, kiss her, hold her and kill her all in the same instant. Instead he practiced breathing techniques until his heart caught back up with his head. Fiona tried to look bored as he sat in silence.

"I didn't get tired of you Fi." He reminded her softly. She sniffed and got out of the car. Crying in front of him that first night had been enough.

…...

"Michael?" Her soft voice woke him immediately. He looked groggily up at where she stood at the end of the couch in a blue sundress, her purse tossed over her shoulder.

"Yeah Fi?" Her muttered.

"I need you to drive me to the Homestead Clinic." She said calmly. His eyes shot open and he held perfectly still.

"Is everything okay?"

"Fine." She told him, ignoring his terror. "I have a doctor's appointment and Sam took your mom to do a job."

"Sam took _my mom_.. to do a job?"

"Who do you think we have working with us now Michael?" Her head cocked to the left. "There aren't exactly a plethora of _burned spies_ lying around Miami to choose from." She said _'burned spies'_ like she'd said l_eprechauns_ before she shook her head and smacked his legs off the couch. "Come on! You're making me late."

…...

"I'm just saying if Sam needed help with a job I was right there."

"They already identify with Madelyn's cover ID. They trust her more than Sam." She said absently, smoothing her hands out over the paper blanket covering her lap. "She's really quite good."

"Jesus." He moaned, covering his face with his hands.

"Don't be such a baby." She sighed as the door swung open and Laura walked in.

"Michael!" She shouted as his hands dropped away. "How are you? Home for the event I see?"

"Something like that." He said softly, looking at Fiona.

"How you doing, Fi?" The little brunette asked, looking over her chart with halfhearted attention that made Michael a little nervous.

"Fine."

"Contractions?" The woman's eyebrow arched at Fiona.

"Some." Fi shrugged, Michael's eyes shot to her.

"Strong?" Michael's former client made a note.

"Mah." Fiona shrugged again. "Pretty strong I guess."

"Regular?" Laura made another note.

"Last night they were more regular than usual."

Michael tried to think about what he'd been doing last night. He couldn't come up with anything spectacular. He certainly hadn't noticed Fiona having strong, regular contractions.

"Good." Michael gaped at the doctor for a second.

"_Good_?"

"She's past her due date. I'd be worried if something wasn't starting by now."

"Define starting." Michael quipped.

"Next two days are so?" Laura shrugged. Fiona looked at Michael like he was scrambling eggs or juggling or something. He made the same face back at her. "He's going to be a nervous one?" She looked at Fi. "I didn't have him pegged for one of those guys that freaks out."

Fiona smiled at him wickedly.

"I'm not going to freak out." Michael protested.

"He knows you're doing this at home right?" Laura was smiling now almost as wickedly as Fiona.

"H-oo-me?" He sputtered. "Wait what?"

"How would I check into a hospital Michael? Under an alis?"

"Why not here?" He shook his head.

"It's an hour away! Without traffic!" Fi almost shouted. "I don't want to have him in the Charger!"

He bit back his response. He also wasn't fond of the idea of her having the baby in the Charger.

"Don't worry. David and I intend to make it there before the newest little Westen does." Laura smiled before looking back at Fiona. "Blood pressure?"

"Mine or his?" She teased, both women chuckled. Michael felt sick. "Fine. Sam took it this morning and it was _low_."

"Perfect. It was good here too." Laura hummed, writing that down. "Lie back and let me look."

Michael winced and looked away as the woman snapped on a rubber glove and poked her hand beneath the paper sheet.

"Wow. You've been working since last week. You're like a solid three." She pulled back. Michael watched her and Fiona exchange impressed expressions. He chewed on his lip and tried not to think about what that meant. He zoned out until a peculiar whoosh filled the air and he looked up to see what was happening.

"Is that what I think it is?" He exhaled looking from Fiona to Laura then back to Fiona. She gave him the first real smile since he'd come through the door four days before.

"That is a very regular and strong heart beat." Laura smiled in satisfaction as Michael cocked his head and listened intently. He barely registered Fi's fingers reaching out to his until he'd grabbed on with almost frightened force. "I don't think you're going to make it to next weeks appointment." Laura told Fiona.

"Thank God." Fiona sighed, seemingly ignoring Michael all together. Only he knew how her thumb had been methodically stroking up and down the back of his hand to keep him from loosing it.

…...

"What's the problem with your blood pressure?" He asked softly after a few minutes of silence in the Charger.

"Nothing. It was high for a while, but now it's not." She dismissed him. "I'm fine."

"And contractions? You didn't tell me you were having contractions."

"I'm sorry? What? Did you want to come hold my hand or something?" She sneered shaking her head.

"Maybe." He said softly. She swallowed hard before turning back to look at him.

"I'm fine Michael." She told him. "I got into this on my own and I don't expect anything from you."

"I told you I want to be there for you Fi." She both loved and hated the tone of voice he was using. That breathless painfully emotional voice. It was raw. It was the true Michael. Her true Michael at least, but sadness always seemed to loom large when he used it. He stopped the car and turned to look at her. "Will you let me be?"

She parted her lips to answer before she actually new the answer. He waited.

"I don't know if I can." She told him honestly. He kept starring for a minute, studying her face as if the answers were there. They weren't. He nodded and looked away. "I don't think I can."

She watched him silently before looking out the window herself.

"I wish I could." She told the cars passing by them, reaching her hand back to his knee and laying it there until he picked it up with his own.

He did realize he'd left her with nothing, and that she was going to give him nothing in return.


	4. Chapter 4

Fiona had always walked a thin line with Michael. A thin line between loving him and being there for him unconditionally, and attempting not to let him treat her however he pleased. He could ignore, put off, placate or dismiss her one moment, only to rely on her, without question, in the next.

Loving Fiona was never something Michael had asked her permission to do. She belonged to him. A lot like Sam, the Charger or any yogurt with in a mile radius.

So when she didn't.. belong to him.. conform to his idea of who she was... he was understandably confused. But then again he was a 'covert operative' a master of behavior and disguise. How was it that he couldn't understand the motives of the person closest to him in the world?

Well, what ever the reason. Madelyn Westen had decided she'd seen enough.

"Where's Fiona?" She demanded.

"In the garage."

"She must be working on building us a dog fighting ring." Sam clapped his hands together and rubbed, Michael tried not to ask. "I'm gonna go fill her in."

She and Sam had just gotten home from their job. The one that apparently involved fighting dogs. Sam reached out his hand to his mother opening and closing his palm. Michael hadn't looked pleased when she'd handed his best friend the machine pistol from hand bag.

"Sam!"

"_She knows how to use it!" _Sam promised, shaking his head at Michael like he was insulted. "How was the appointment? Everything okay?"

"Yeah except the baby's apparently coming any minute now." He stared at Sam like he should be panicking.

"Whatever. They've been saying that for four weeks." He snorted before heading towards the weapons shed with the armor from the job. "She's a Westen. She'll come out when she's damn good and ready." He pulled the door back, grumbling before he shut it. "Probably at the most inopportune moment possible."

Michael couldn't make out what he said to Fi before it clicked closed.

"Do you know what your father said when he found out I was pregnant with you?" She asked, gushing smoke out the side of her lips as he resumed his slumped position on the couch.

"I'm not really up to a Dad story right now." He told her flatly.

"Tough." She snapped. "He told me he didn't want to hear me use it as an excuse for anything." She looked out into the room like she was addressing an audience. "Like getting all weepy or eating like a pig or not keeping up with the house work."

"What's the point of this little antic dote? Michael made a face.

"I'm just pointing out that pregnancy isn't just a physical thing. It's emotionally exhausting as well. It's frightening Michael! And you need someone. You need someone who's understanding and compassionate even when you've done things that seem irrational."

"Mom.. this is kind of beyond irrational. I just found out six weeks ago that Fiona.. Fi-on-a!" He squinted his eyes shut opening them again and looking at her wildly. "_Fiona_ lied to me. She tricked me into getting her pregnant."

"Did you even think for just one second that it could have been an accident?" She hollered.

"Did you?" He balked, his eyes widening even further almost challenging her to try and convince him otherwise.

"No!" Maddy shouted back. "But I know what it's like to be left behind Michael! I know what it's like to be disregarded by someone you love. It's scary. She was scared! And even I didn't see how scared she really was." Michael swallowed hard and his mother lowered her voice. "You take for granted that Fiona is strong. That Fiona can take care of herself. We all did."

"Mom." He sighed. Maddy wondered why he always treated emotional truths like something he didn't have time for.

"I'm sorry Michael, but you haven't been here. You haven't seen her go through this. She's not as strong as you think she is Michael." His mother dropped her cigarette into the ashtray, waving away the smoke and looking towards the door sympathetically. "She's scared. And you're sitting out here on the couch feeling sorry for yourself."

…...

He found Sam and Fiona in the garage apartment surrounded by pictures of scary looking dogs and sketchy looking people.

"Do I want to know?" He asked softly.

"No." Sam shook his head. "Probably not."

Fiona just smiled, picking up another photo and paper clipping it to an official looking paper.

Michael sat down at the table across from her.

"It's an animal rescue group your mom's got us all wrapped up in. Long story. Anyway. Chuck Finley's gotta have a pretty impressive selection of fightin' dogs if he's gonna get this job done."

"And he will." Fiona hummed, handing him a file full of dogs.

"My mom's job?" He raised his eyebrows.

"Her's are always the worst, Mikey. I gotta tell you." He blew air out of his lips.

"When exactly did you guys teach my mom how to lock and load?" He asked Fiona with a pointed look.

"That was Sam. And I think it was.." She looked at him with a tilt of her head. "May?"

"Right after we finished the nursery." Sam nodded. "She's good Mike. Quick study."

"She went from assembling baby furniture to assembling-." She stopped taking a sharp breath, Sam pressed his lips together for a fraction of a second before flipping though the folder absently.

"Champion? Really? Sounds a little too much for me. How 'bout Rex or something."

"Fi?" He whispered, pressing his hand over hers. She yanked hers back like he had burned her.

"I'm fine Michael." She forced the words out before turning to Sam. "Champion is an arrogant name. It's perfect and if you change anything I'm going to put you to sleep." She pressed up from the table, swallowing hard. "I'm going to go check the warehouse blueprints again."

He watched her leave before turning to glare at Sam.

"She's okay. They're just the fake ones." He sighed. "Not the bad ones like last night. She's just tired."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah.." He tapped his watch absently. "Those were regular.. these are all over the place."

"Sam.." He sighed. "I'm out in the cold here."

"I'm not getting involved in this Mike." He looked down at the folder seriously. "I can't."

"Can't?"

"Won't." He clarified. "You're my best friend, no matter what. But I'm gonna be here for Fi and _that_ baby, no matter what. I'm gonna be on her side, Mike." He tapped the folder against the table. "Someone should be."

"I'm on her side, Sam." He muttered softly, Sam just kept looking at his file.

"I'm gonna go meet Jesse for a beer."

"I thought you were doing something here?"

"She's done." He told Michael, the other man looked at him questioningly. "The blueprints are the table." He pointed to the spot where Fi was sitting. "She's done."

…...

"Fi?" She was standing in front of the sink trying to compose herself. "You okay?"

"Yeah.. just tired." She shook her head. "Of being pregnant."

"The doctor said soon."

"She's been saying that for months." Fiona quipped. "Soon apparently means something different for her then it does for me."

He put his hand out slowly touching the curve of her back. She didn't look at him like she was going to hurt him, so he let himself move closer, smoothing the other hand over the gray and blue dress where it stretched to compensate for her belly. She let her body sag against him for a second and he jumped at it, pulling her into him and wrapping his arms around her.

"Sam left. Something about a meeting with Jesse?" She huffed a little.

"That was supposed to be my meeting." She pouted. "I haven't seen him in a week."

He hadn't intended to feel the jealousy that made it's way up his spine but he did.

"You guys see Jesse a lot?"

"Not as much as I'd like." She admitted honestly, pulling back from him and leaving the bathroom.

"Here." His mother said softly, handing her a glass of ice tea.

"Thank you." Fi whispered before gulping down half the glass.

"You can't let yourself get dehydrated Fiona." She scolded. "It makes those damn fake labor pains worse."

"Ha." She snorted. "I'll take them if they get this damn baby out any faster!"

Madelyn patted her shoulder before casting a sideways glance at Michael.

"You know what they say." She told Fiona flatly. "What gets them in gets them out." She raised a quick eyebrow at each of them before grabbing her purse. "I'm going with Sam."

They both stared at her as she hurried through the door.

"You're mother wants us to have sex." She snickered, shaking her head. Michael grinned at her.

"How 'bout we just start with dinner?" He raised a cautious eyebrow. "You can catch me up on the last nine months?

…...

"So Sam's diving behind the shrubbery and your mom's just 'firing at will' like a crazy person. I swear Michael I almost wet my pants!" She stopped laughing long enough to snort. He shook his head at her. "You should have been there!"

His face freezes for a second when he realizes she's right. _He should have been there_. He keeps laughing but his eyes aren't in it and she notices right away.

"I shouldn't have said that." She shook her head. "I didn't mean it like-."

"I know Fi." He whispers, leaning forward over the coffee table between them for a second before standing up and wandering into the solarium nursery. She watched him pick up and set down a few stuffed animals, tracing a snow globe of Ireland before picking up the one from Miami that he'd given her so long ago. It had been a thank you. It had been a promise. A promise he'd broken.

"We did a good job didn't we?" She beamed. "It's lovely."

"It is." He touched the sage green walls.

"Bright and sunny." She sniffed a little. "Our baby deserves to be surrounded by bright sunshine." He closed his eyes and let her words sink in. "I'm going to be a good mother Michael. I promise you. I'm going to do all the stupid things mothers are supposed to do. You're mom's going to bake disgusting cookies and make lopsided Halloween costumes and Sam would sooner face a firing squad before he'd let anything happen to this baby."

"I know Fi." He told her again with heartbreaking gentleness. She sounded like she was trying to convince him of something. Her worthiness? Her commitment? He couldn't tell, but her eagerness made him feel like an ass. He looked over at her, watching her encircle her stomach soothingly with soft strokes that she had once reserved for him. He got it then maybe, why she'd done what she'd done.

She looked up when he sat down beside her and covered his hands with hers. "It's a very lucky baby."

Her lower lip trembled and he pressed his forehead to hers.

"I can't say that I'm sorry Michael." She whispered. "But I can say that I'm sorry it had to be this way."

"Me too." He gulped as she lifted her hand and stroked the side of his face, her fingers drifting into his hair. He thought about the last time he'd been touched with loving fingers. It had been.. well it had been just before he'd disappeared into the airport she'd touched him, just like this. He leaned further into her, his eyelids tightening when he realized how badly he needed her touch. "Fi.."

She answered his plea by pressing her mouth to his. He whimpered, wrapping his palms around her face. She put her hands on his chest pushing her fingers between the buttons of his shirt and digging into the skin until he gasped.

"_Fiona, Fiona, Fiona_." He breathed quickly into her ear. She stilled, pulling back just a fraction of an inch, but not pulling away.

"Michael." He made an uncomfortable noise and dropped his head to her shoulder. "I'm sorry." She kept stroking his hair. "It's.. I just." She pulled his head up to face her. "I need you to need this as much as I do."

He exhaled quickly, with a slow shake of his head.

"You have no idea." He snickered, before he carefully picked her up and carried her back into the bedroom.

...

If her body had looked bizarrely unbalanced fully clothed, when he pulled the straps of her small dress off, her profile made him wonder how she managed to stay upright at all. He cupped his palms against her abdomen and moved his hands around her it was a crystal ball. She unsnapped the front clasp of her bra and wisked it away.

"Wow." He muttered with wide eyes.

"Like?" She asked. "They've doubled in size."

"I see that." He blinked.

"They leak." She announced bluntly.

"Leak what?" He raised his eyes at her.

"Milk I guess." She shrugged. "I just thought you should know."

"Good to know." He decided, looking her over for a second before daring to touch her.

"How we gonna do this?"She sighed, he chewed on his lip for a second before raising his hands.

"I don't know. We were doing okay out there." He chucked his thumb towards the door.

"That was.. passion.. this is.." Fi looked from side to side before deciding on a word. "Logistics." He shook his head in confusion before rolling his eyes and dropping his hands to the buttons of his pants and giving her a questioning glance. "That would probably help yes." He huffed dropping down on to the mattress to pull off his shoes and fling his pants towards the door before she raised her finger as if in triumph before shutting and locking it.

He reached out and guided her back towards him, settling her between his knees. All he could see was the massive hill of stomach at the end of his nose. He sighed loudly before turning her by the hips and leaning her back against the pillows at the head of her bed. He kissed her before running his tongue along her nipples, slipping his eyes up to hers in surprise.

"I warned you." She told him, smiling wryly until he took the whole swollen thing into his mouth. "Oh my.." Her high pitched voice made him smile until she made her move, finding the tip of his penis with her fingertips and carefully sliding her palm down to the base and cupping his testicles. "He-llo."

"Fi." His eyes closed, turning his cheek and resting against the curve of her body. This was a dangerous position and he knew it. Fiona Glenanne had him by the balls.

She giggled, tugging slightly before gripping his organ and thrusting her hand up ward. He inhaled pulling back from her enough to move his mouth lower. Her breath hitched and her spine straightened when he did.

"Hello." He breathed at her before getting back to buisness as her fingers weaved in and out of his hair.

"Oh.. Michael." She breathed over in over until she shuddered violently arching up. "Now."

"Now." He nodded in agreement crawling up to his knees and sitting before her. She wrapped her hand around him and stroked him a few times until he was panting against her. "Now Fi." He said sharply, gripping her upper arms. She chuckled breathlessly at him before moving herself to a more accessible point.

He took another slow shaky breath before meeting her eyes and kissing her as soft as he knew how.

She smiled at him, a shy innocent smile that he rarely saw on her face. He loved that smile.

Michael tugged carefully on her hips and she moved to him before stopping quickly.

"Michael.." She bit her lip. "I.." She needed to know. For the safety of their baby she needed to know. "You haven't been.. with anyone.. while you were away?"

"What?" He looked at her like she was crazy.

"I'd understand." She shook her head, tracing his face with her thumbs. "I just I need to know." She bit her lip. "If we need to use protection.. for the baby."

He stared at her, lips apart and eyes wide, before shaking his head. She smiled at him then, before capturing each lip individually before sealing her mouth over his. He didn't really register how close she was to him until she slipped herself around him, gasping a little at the impact before relaxing against him.

"Hi." She said again, he smiled at her, letting his eyes drift shut and pressing on her lower back in a futile attempt to get deeper. She laughed a little when he ran his hand over the obstacle between them. "Lie back." She coaxed, he did as he was told before taking her hands.

"Have you?" He asked calmly.

"No Michael." She told him, rocking forward and then back. "You're the only one for me."

…...


	5. Chapter 5

The phone call didn't go as planned.

Michael's new handler was not as understanding as he would have liked. Of course the woman didn't really know what she was supposed to be understanding. Michael considered telling her why he wasn't leaving Miami, but fatherhood didn't really fit the new reputation he was trying to create for himself.

He'd found it more difficult to readjust to his old life style then he expected. He had a different way now. He got too involved. Too personal.

And assets were another story all together. Michael Westen had always prided himself on meeting, cultivating and abandoning assets with out much thought for what happened to them afterward. Not like he didn't try to keep them safe, he'd always tried to keep them safe. It was just that with a few exceptions, like one tiny tornado of an IRA agent, he just didn't really think of what happened to them _after._

Now every freaking asset reminded him of Fi. of his mom, of that woman her mom had befriended at county records. Every unknowing idiot was Sugar, or Javiar or that 13yr old with the wicked stepfather.

That was part of the reason he shouldn't be here. He'd managed a lot of visibility in his nine months away. He had jobs on the back-burner that would come back to bite him if he didn't follow through. And now it wasn't just him. It wasn't even just his mom or Fi.

It was his.. child.

His son? Oh _God_ please let it be a girl. He wasn't ready to navigate a father son relationship, even if it was from the other side. He did know that actually being here when the baby was born was probably an important first step, and that's why he'd just had a very irritating conversation with Monica.. his new handler.

His child seemed to refuse to come out. Despite Sam's frequent exclamations that stubbornness was a family trait this baby had coming at it from both sides, Michael wasn't entirely sure that the baby (or God -or Fiona) wasn't doing this just to make his world more difficult.

"Maybe he's waiting for you to leave?" Jesse provided helpfully when he finally came around to see Michael. The other man scowled at him.

"That's not funny." He grumbled.

"Pretty funny to me." Sam muttered from his file.

"Don't worry Mike. If she's pregnant for another day Fiona's going to perform her own c-section." Porter shook his head. "We gotta go, Sam."

"I thought this was a social call?" Michael complained.

"It was." Jesse lied. "Just.. you know.. killing two birds with one stone."

"I though you and mom finished up the dog job yesterday?" Michael quipped. "Mom went shopping to celebrate? I gave her my credit card! She better not have been lying."

"This is Jesse's job." Sam said quickly.

"You're helping Jesse on a job?" He tried and failed to not sound hurt.

"Come on man." Porter clapped him on the back. "You know how it is. Once you find a good team.."

Sam had the good grace to wince apologetically before following his new 'team leader' out the door.

"Michael?" Fiona called softly from the door.

"Sam's doing jobs with Jesse." He shook his head. "My mom's carrying machine pistols in her purse. . My new handler thinks I'm not 'committed to my mission'." He flopped back into Sam's lazy boy. "And I have _no_ plan."

"Michael." She repeated, making her way across the apartment taking his hand in hers. He absently gripped her fingers, staring at the door as if looking for the missing piece to his puzzle. Something he hadn't considered. "I think it's time." He heard her whisper when he tugged on her arm and pulled her onto his lap.

"Time for what Fi?" He sighed, biting the edge of his lip and continuing to ponder. She pressed the pads of her fingers to his jaw and turned his face towards her. His eyes quickly followed.

"I think it's time." She told him, bringing their joined hands to her abdomen, watching his face pale in understanding.

…...

"We need to call the clinic right now." Michael announced from his spot in front of her, watching her fight through another contraction.

"No." She panted. "Not yet. I'm okay."

His eyes widened at her like she was insane. He was suddenly quiet sure she was.

"You are not okay!" He hissed back, wincing as the tight fist she had on the front of his shirt caught a few of his chest hairs as she twisted. "We should call someone."

"Call Sam." She offered through clenched teeth. Michael rubbed his free hand down her back while readjusting their grip on his other. She leaned her head against his shoulder, pressing her lips against the back of the chair she was straddling.

"I did." He leaned forward onto the edge of his own seat. "He's on his way as soon as he can. I'm calling Laura."

"How stupid am I going to feel when she rushes away from the clinic to wait for hours for this baby to make his move? Just wait Michael I'm fine." She shook her head letting go of his shirt, giving him a fake smile.

"I'm not fine." He raised his eyebrows at her before rolling his head around on his shoulders before letting go of her hand and popping up from the table. He shook his head pouring her a glass of water. "I'm terrified."

She smiled for real at that, taking a sip of the water before pushing back from the chair and going to the sofa.

"Come here." She said soothingly. "I'll hold your hand."

His lips twitched as his eyes slipped shut. He set the pitcher down and made his way over to her, settling back against the cushions behind her, she melted into him reaching her hand back. He took it and she gave him a tight squeeze.

"It's going to be okay." She told him.

"That's supposed to be my line." He teased, kissing her cheek.

"Remind me later." She smiled before squirming uncomfortably. Michael put his palm against her stomach as she blew out a slow breath. He could feel her body lurch and tighten as he moved his flat hand in soothing strokes. She squeezed her eyes shut and a low moan escaped her lips.

"Five minutes apart Fi." He told her pointedly. She huffed at him before her free hand clapped down and grasped his thigh.

"Ohmy-" She moaned again pulling both of his hands to her body and pressing firmly, Michael continued rubbing gently.

…...

"Hello?"

"Sam!" Michael's voice rang desperately from the bedroom over Fiona's earthy yells. Axe rounded the corner and met Mike in the hall. "She wouldn't let me call Laura. Wouldn't even give me the number."

"I figured. I called from the road." He looked at Fiona. "How we doing?"

"_We_ are not-." She stopped talking, cursed loudly. Michael spun on his heals and dropped back to her side as she started to cry out again. "Michael!"

"Hold on to me." He whispered. "Just hold onto me." His head whipped back to Sam. "Her hands are swollen, Sam."

"Damn." He opened a drawer in the kitchen and handed his friend a blood pressure cuff. Michael turned back to Fiona. "Laura's at least an hour away, maybe more."

"Sam." Michael said sharply looking at the read outs. "She's gotta go to a hospital."

"No!" Fiona yelled forcefully, bringing his attention back to her. "No.."

"You could be in real trouble here Fi." Westen shook his head at her.

"They'll take him away from me Michael!" She forced out before curling into a ball on the bed. "Don't you see that?"

"What?" He asked her in confusion, cupping her sweaty face. "No one's going to-."

"We got a threat Mike." Sam muttered.

"What?" His voice went straight to command mode,

"After you left. We got a threat, _she should watch her self or the department of homeland security might start taking an interest in her_." Axe explained, pressing his palm against the door frame. "Interest as in terrorist. It's a big deal."

"Why am I just now hearing about this?" He yelped. "I'm protected now. I have connections now, guys! I can take care of you." He looked back at her, her wild eyes were glazed over with pain and fear. "For God sakes Fiona let me take care of you!"

She opened her mouth to respond but another contraction knocked her words away. He watched her body contort as she cried out in pain. Her hands flew to his shoulders and gripped him hard.

"We are going to the hospital."He muttered.

Sam's phone rang and he flipped it open.

"Maddy you ready to be a grandma?" He asked the caller. "She's a little shaky. Mike's convinced her to go to the hospital."

"Not going to the hospital Sam." Mike yelled over his girlfriend's frantic cry.

"You just said-." He turned his head to them. Michael had his hands on Fiona's parted knee's and his eyes fixed between them. "Oh man. Maddy you better hurry up and get here."

"Fi look at me." Michael said calmly, she fearfully replied with an angished whimper. "It's going to be okay." She closed her eyes and arched her back in pain. "I need a sterile towel."

"Michael!"

"Shh.. Don't push yet." He ordered, tearing the thin side of her panties and pulling them away completely. "Just look at me."

"I have too!" She snapped.

"Wait for Sam." He told her softly.

"Michael..." She moaned before it turned into a growl.

"Whoa.. I said no pushin-. Damn it!" He moved his hands. "SAM!"

"I brought the whole bag-. Holy God!"

"Towel!" Michael reminded, Axe ripped it open and tossed it to him. "Push Fi."

"We're having a baby!" Sam yelled, earning quick dirty looks from the new parents until Fiona yelped and bore down again.

"Good girl." Michael coaxed. "That's my girl. Come on, Fiona."

He actually laughed out loud when the baby finally slid free and started to squeal. Not registering the fact that his mother had just rounded the corner and that Sam was currently gripping her at the shoulders and crying like a baby himself. He lifted his child up towards Fiona who was starring at him with round unfocused eyes.

"It's a girl." He said softly before laughing again. Fiona's eyes widened and contracted, he leaned over their daughter and kissed her on the mouth before handing her the baby.

"A girl?" Fiona breathed, still looking bewildered. She dropped her eyes to the baby who promptly started screaming at her. "Oh.."

"Did I miss it?" Came Laura's playful voice as the doctor joined Sam and Madelyn in the doorway. Michael Westen closed his eyes and started to laugh again.

…...

"Michael?"

He lifted his head away from where he'd been studying the baby laying beside Fiona's sleeping form and looked at his mother.

"Yeah Mom?" She gestured for him to follow and he gave the infant one last fleeting look before moving out into the kitchen.

Madelyn was in the nursery, smoothing out two almost identical outfits, one pink, one blue.

"Your father bought these in the hospital gift shop the morning before you were born." She grinned. "I think he was trying not to worry. You wore this one when you were just a few hours old." She tapped the blue sleeper. "As soon as Sam told me about Fiona being pregnant, I thought about them. I gave them to her as a late Christmas gift. I never even thought to give them to Nate and Ruth. They were yours Michael. Isn't that something?" He watched his mother pick up the pink sleeper and lay it in his hands. "Go put it on her." She smiled. "I'm just.." She lifted the blue one carefully and folded it in half. "I'm just going to save this one for her brother."

Michael stood there as she walked past him and into her own bedroom before he lifted the sleeper to his chin and held it there for a minute before going back to Fiona.

…...

"How long do we have?" Her voice startled him, he looked up from the chair he'd settled in and watched as she traced her fingers over the sleeping baby.

"How long, Fi?"

"Till you have to go.." She smiled at him and he moved to kneel beside the bed, tracing her hand with his fingers.

"I don't want to talk about that now." He whispered. "How do you feel?"

"Laura said I was fine." She moved their fingers to her lips and kissed them. He nodded at her, laying his palm against her face and pressing his lips to hers.

"You were amazing today, Fi." He told her.

"I was, wasn't I?" She hummed. He smiled. "Thank you Michael." She told him softly, cupping her hand over his. "For being there for me." He touched his forehead to hers and let out a shaky breath. "I.. She needs a name."

"Claire." He said quickly. "I thought we'd name her Claire." She froze before pulling back slowly, he raised his eye brows at her and she nodded almost imperceptibility. "Yeah?" She nodded again, Fiona slid back on the bed and made room for him beside her and the baby. Keeping her eyes on his. He slipped onto the mattress, scooping the newly named Westen into the crook of his elbow. His free hand made it's way through Fiona's hair. "You should sleep."

"Promise me." She whispered quietly. "That I won't wake up alone."

"Fi."

"Don't leave with out goodbye Michael." Her voice was pleading and he swallowed back his on emotion from the day.

"I promise."

…...

He held the baby tightly against his chest, alternating between looking at her and looking out the window.

"This may be the hardest thing I've ever hand to do." He told the window, before emphatically looking at his infant daughter. "And I've done a lot of hard things." He swallowed. "Leaving your mom is hard enough kid and I've done that.." His eyes went back to the window. ".. too much."

Michael swallowed again.

"If I could stay.." He stopped himself before the word turned into the sob it was trying to. "Your mom and your grandma and your uncle Sam are going to be right here with you." He nodded at her. "They're going to make sure that you never ever want for anything I promise you that." He sniffed now before letting the words rush out of him. "I know you're not going to remember this, and some day you're probably going to hate my guts for not being there. But I need to tell you.. that you.." He closed his eyes and fought with control. "I never knew I could feel this way about anything. I love you. _You_. You scrawny, little, loud mouthed complainer." He grinned. "But I did fall in love with your mother so I guess it isn't that much of a stretch." He pressed a kiss to her soft dark baby hair. "I have to go. I_ have _to, but I promise if I get another way out I'll take it this time. I'll find away." He kissed her again, inhaling deeply before lowering her into the cradle beside the bed and dropping next to her mother.

"Fiona." He pressed on the ball of her shoulder, rolling her back as her eyes popped open. He watched her blink away the tears. "It's time. I-" She put her fingers over his mouth and sat up, wrapping her arms around him as tightly as she could. He melted into her, pressing his mouth and eyes into slits to keep from loosing it completely. She grazed her fingers over his hair before pulling back and kissing him slowly and fully. "I-."

"I know." She told him quickly, turning her eyes away from his face and using her thumbs to trace away the tears on his cheeks.

"No." He kissed her temple and moved her face back to him. "Let me-." His mouth closed and her lips trembled before crumpling. "I love you, Fiona Glenanne." He

"I love you too, Michael." She choked, kissing him again as he lifted away from her and all but ran to the door.

The baby squeaked in her bed and Fiona quickly gathered her up.

"Shh. Shh.. No." She cooed, pulling her daughter close. "It's okay. He'll find a way."


	6. Chapter 6

"And she said that. In front of the whole audience Dad. That Reagan won the cold war? Are you joking? Reagan? I'd like to see the files where Reagan infiltrated the intelligence community in Communist Russia."

"Well you know that's how it works Baby Girl." Michael sighed, looking longingly at the fuzzy projection of his little girl on the screen. "The president gets the credit."

"Go get your drawing to show Daddy." Fiona said softly waiting until Claire ran off. He watched her hand move forward, he knew what she was doing and he smiled and let her trace his face on her computer screen.

"You have to tell Sam to stick with actual children's stories when he's reading to her at night."

"She likes it!" Axe yelled from somewhere in the background.

"Children's stories bore her Michael." Fiona whispered. "She _likes_ cold war intelligence files from the 1980's. He only reads her declassified stuff."

"Mostly." Sam muttered, Fiona cast a irritated glance at him.

"She's getting so big."

"She's 6 going on 26." Fiona huffed. "How are you?"

"Fine Fi."

"I don't like that you're in the middle of all this Michael."

"I'm trying to get to the _end_ of it Fiona."

"You're always trying to get to the end of it." She huffed.

"Mommy! You're breaking the rules." Claire reported taking her seat back in front of the webcam. "No fighting over video conference." She looked at Fiona sharply.

"You're right McBride, I'm sorry." She breathed. Michael smiled, it had annoyed him at first, both when Fiona had used his old cover ID as a middle name for Claire, and when she'd started calling her by it. Now he had to admit it was cute.

"Look." Claire held up the drawing. A family portrait complete with the Charger as the back drop. "I even left a spot. For my baby brother." A slim finger smacked at the blank space next to Sam.

"Claire!" Fiona inhaled sharply. Michael froze.

"Your brother." He said flatly, trying insanely to see around the picture as Claire started to let it go. Fiona grabbed it and continued blocking their faces.

"Mommy told you not to-." He couldn't make out the rest of the garbled conversation.

"I'm sorry I forgot!" Whispered Claire.

"Guys?" Michael called impatiently. Fiona and Claire dropped the picture.

"Um.. just.. you know in case I.. " She looked at her mother. "..ever got one..?"

Fiona's wide eyes looked from Claire to the screen.

"Fi."

"I'm not even 100% sure yet.." She shook her head back and fourth.

"Fiona!'

"What ? You were there too you know!"

"We said we'd wait until I was _stateside_."

"I'm getting old Michael! Besides it wasn't totally on purpose this time. It just happened!"

"You do know how it happens right?" He asked sharply. She opened her mouth to reply.

"Dad.. the rules." Claire huffed.

"Sorry Baby Girl." Michael grumbled. "Where's grandma?"

"Lying down." Fiona rolled her eyes. "She's still got that damn respiratory thing that she got from Claire this summer. Jesse finally convinced her she needs to see a doctor."

"First I couldn't get her to stop going to doctors when she wasn't sick. Now she won't go when she is." Michael made a face before looking at his watch. "I've got to go." He whispered.

"I love you Daddy."

"I love you Claire." He said dreamily.

"Mom." Claire nudged her mother.

"Oh.. yeah.. _I.._ love you too. Daddy."

"Love you Fi." He breathed, watching the sides of her mouth twitch up.

"I couldn't hear you." Claire complained.

"You weren't supposed to McBride, he was _talking_ to me." Fiona muttered indignantly. Michael watched her finger approach the termination key with a quick look back. He smiled at her before the screen blinked off.

He rubbed his face a few times. _She wasn't 100% sure his ass._ He'd been home nearly three months ago. _She knew damn well..._

"Kam'sa'hap'nida." Michael bowed slightly to the man standing outside the office cube he'd just been in. It was a rare treat that he found a facility secure enough for video transmission to his family's living room.

The South Korean diplomat smiled before breaking into scattered English.

"Family.. very.. beauty like."

Michael bowed again with a short smile before making his way back down to the lobby.

…...

He had_ tried_ to get out. Even Fiona would give him that. He'd done more stateside. He'd even taken them abroad once or twice, but when things started to really amp up in Korea. Michael Westen's visits home and family vacations came to an end.

He'd married Fiona, finally, kissed a four year old Claire good bye and gotten on a plane for the Orient. He'd been home twice since then. Most recently a two month stint recovering from a botched attempt at liberating some double agents being held in Pyongyang.

Truth be told he was lucky not to have been shipped back home in a box. He didn't tell Fiona, but judging by both the way she'd ended up pregnant again and how it had taken him two months to work up the nerve to leave, he guessed she'd figured it out.

They **had** talked about more children. Claire was.. well _Claire was Claire_. They had also not used birth control the two months he was home. Secretly, he probably was trying just as hard as Fiona.

Fiona had somehow known almost seven years ago that a baby was what she needed and she'd been right. Michael just didn't think _he _would need it as much as she did. But he did.

He had been waiting for six years for Claire to confront him with the theory that the job was more important to him than she was. She had not. She loved his stories. She loved his encrypted messages and the surprise clue like gifts he sent from time to time. She was happy to see him coming and sad to see him go. No matter what.

Claire was clearly the best thing that had happened in the life of Michael Westen. His wife too for that matter. Fiona had worried that when she started school other kids would effect the ease at which she accepted her fathers nearly year long absences. They didn't.

"My dad's military." Sam had heard her tell a preschool classmate who inquired why her Uncle and not her Father had accompanied her to Father-Daughter night."Overseas."

Sam had been so proud of her. Fiona had cried in the shower. Claire McBride Westen was the picture of her father and yet oddly well adjusted.

_"Fiona.. where did you put Mike's" Jesse looked at the then three year old before spelling. " S-I-G-S-A-."_

_"It's in the trunk of the Charger." The little girl informed him never looking up from her baby animals coloring book. "Next to my roller skates and Mommy's C4."_

…...

"Monica?" He looked at the Military Commander whose phone he was using. They guy looked annoyed.

"Michael. Good they found you." He looked back at the jeep that had brought him here.

"Yeah. Nooot the greatest timing. What?"

"You need to get to a secure line so I can send you a wire."

"That'll take days." He snorted, running through the last two meetings he'd had in his head. "What is it?"

"It's personal." She said flatly. Michael rolled his eyes. Fiona would send a wire to announce her pregnancy that Claire had already announced four weeks before.

"Then just read it." He smiled, checking his watch.

"Michael I think you should read this yourself-."

"Who's it from?" He checked his watch again.

"Jesse Porter." Great, it was probably something stupid. He probably wanted a contact or something.

"Then read it." He huffed, rubbing his head. "Monica.."

"_We lost your mom_." She evenly he felt his body go hot, then cold.

"What?" His hand dropped away. "When?"

"That's all it says Michael, I'm sorry." She didn't sound sorry. "_We lost your mom_."

…...

"Anything?" Fiona whispered looking up from the couch where Claire was asleep wrapped tightly in her arms.

"I'm sorry Fi. He's off the grid.'"Jesse mumbled, sliding through the door. She rolled her eyes. "All Monica said was that he got the message and he was working on getting home."

"How hard can it be to get from Korea to Miami?"

"You'd be surprised." Jesse grinned sadly. "He'll get here."

Sam was still moving around flower arrangements. He didn't seem capable of doing anything else. He moved the roses to the left and the carnations to the right before picking up a giant potted mum and moving it to the kitchen.

Fiona followed him with her eyes before looking away.

"I'm gonna go get Nate, Ruth and the kids from the airport." Jesse called to him. "Sam? Wanna come?"

Sam looked at Fiona who was starring back towards Madelyn's bedroom. He shook his head at Jesse.

"K. We'll be back soon."

"Jesse?" Fiona looked towards him absently. "Thank you."

"Sure Fi." He gave her a long look. "I just can't believe she's gone."

Her eyes narrowed before he closed the door. _She's gone. _

_Gone._

"Sam?" Fiona whispered.

Sam swallowed hard before moving back into the room carrying a bunch of tulips.

"Sam." It was a little more urgent this time.

"Yeah?" His voice sounded as lost as her own.

"Can you take her?" Her voice shook a little. "I need.." Her breath quickened. "Can you..?" He dropped the tulips and hurried over. She flapped her hands like she was fanning herself, large tears slid shamelessly down her face as Sam lifted the sleeping child off of her and she darted into Madelyn's bedroom.

He swallowed with a slow shake of his head, backing up and sitting on Claire's bed with the child settled against his shoulder. He pressed his ear against her silky dark hair. Wincing at the sound of Fiona's muffled sobs before covering Claire's ears.

…...

_You missed your fathers funeral.. by eight years! _

Michael stared out the window of the plane smoothing his hands one over the other before repeating the action.

"Business?" The woman next to him asked softly, turning her face towards his own. He blinked.

"I'm sorry?"

"I'm sorry I haven't talked to another American in.." She looked sheepish before taking a deep breath. "Are you traveling on business? You seem nervous." She smiled, and he almost said yes, but for what ever reason he didn't. "Big business deal?"

"No. Um.." He looked back out the window. "My mother just died."

"Oh my God I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed, dropping her hand softly on his arm.

"Me too." He chuckled.

"Was she sick?" She was looking at him so sympathetically. So sweetly.

"Apparently." He knew better than to talk to someone who strikes up a random conversation on public transportation, but he couldn't seem to stop himself. He wanted to talk to someone. Needed too.

He checked his watch again. He could call Fiona, risk the chance that she'd be asleep at 3am. Risk the chance of not knowing what to say and weeping like a baby on an airplane while forcing her to listen. For what ever reason he felt the need to say that part out loud. "I'm trying to decide if it's too late to call my wife." He muttered, looking at the phone.

"It's not." The woman said softly. Michael wanted to blurt out that she was pregnant and she needed sleep. Especially since she was under stress.. cause his mother died, but he couldn't because he was a covert agent and she was a lady on a plane. She could be anyone, and that thought which usually was as normal to him as oxygen, suddenly made him very lonely. "I'm going to.." She gathered her things around her. ".. move up there and give you some.. privacy."

"You don't have to." He shook his head.

"No.. it's okay.. call her." She pointed to the phone before touching his arm. "I'm sorry. About your mother."

Michael nodded, before taking the phone in his hand. He looked at the numbers halfheartedly before pressing it back on the base and swallowing painfully and trying to remember the last thing he had said to his mom.

_Last time I saw him he said 'see ya in hell boy' so I figured we had something on the books._

…...

"Morning." Nate Westen took a long look at his sister in law before she almost reluctantly hugged him.

"Fiona." Ruth called softly setting down the pan of scrambled eggs and wiping her hands on Madelyn's apron before enveloping her in a too tight, too intimate hug. "How are you holding up? Poor thing. He just always leaves you to deal with all the dirty work doesn't he?"

Fiona said nothing, her eyes fell on Claire, sitting silently between Francie and Lily at the table. Nate and Ruth's children were fat and foul tempered. _Nothing like their cousin_. Fiona thought proudly as little Mikey slammed his cup down on the edge of the antique high chair she'd had her mother send from Ireland when Claire first learned to sit up. She winced at the sour faced baby before scanning the room.

"Where's Sam?"

"Oh. He and some guy named _Virgil_ insisted on gathering up all those beautiful flowers and taking them to some community center down town." She shook her head. "Pity. They really made it almost nice in here."

Fiona looked at Nate. He didn't seem to notice her disgust.

"He is coming right Fi?" He asked softly. "I mean he's not going to stick me with all this is he."

"All what?" Fiona finally said bluntly, her lips slipping apart in irritation.

"You know.. all the stuff.. that you have to do when someone.. you know."

"Sam and I'll take care of it Nate." She barked, her eyes never leaving his.

"No! No!" Ruth said sweetly . "We will not leave you with this burden. We're not just going to dump all our family baggage on you the way Michael does."

"Claire go into Uncle Sam's room and find Mommy the keys to the Charger." She waited for her daughter to close the door before turning to Nate and pulling him into the living room.

"I'd appreciate it if your wife would refrain from the shit talking about my husband until his little girl is out of the room." She turned towards the other woman. "This is my damn house and she can either show some respect or she can stay someplace else." He gave her a wounded look, but she was too busy squinting at the table to see it. "Your big fat baby's eating Sam's cover ID." She hissed before stomping to the garage while Nate pulled a soggy cornered file from his son's mouth.

…...

"What do you say we get out of here McBride?" Fiona sang. "Take Daddy's car and go to the beach until it's time for Grandma's funeral?"

"He is coming, isn't he Mommy?" Claire asked softly from her spot on the chair. Fiona examined her daughter's straight spine and the way her index fingers were pressed together perfectly with all the rest of her fingers folded neatly behind. Her dress was a wine colored smock dress that Madelyn had picked out for her for Christmas. Fiona had put it next to her bed with black Patton leathers for today instead.

"Claire?" She whispered airily, the little girl's face rose to hers. "He's going to find a way." Her lips parted in a lovely smile and she continued. "I promise you? Right now, he's trying his best to get here as fast as he can." The little girl nodded. "So." Fiona straightened up, slapping her knees as she did. "How about that drive McBride?"

Claire stood up slowly, dangling a set of Charger keys off the tip of her finger. Her mother snatched them up dramatically, running her hand down the side of her face. The little girl fingered the slight bulge in her mother's black jersey dress.

"He won't be fat will he?"

"Daddy?" Fiona asked in confusion.

"No." Claire giggled at the possibility. "My brother!"

"You know McBride it might be a sister." Fi warned.

"I don't think so, Mom." The first grader said like her mother was nuts.

…...

He watched them from the row of trees at the base of the hill. Not really able to stay or go. Nate's hideous children sprawled out behind him and Ruth, draped over the chairs like disregarded winter coats. Virgil was there for God's sake. Jesse, with his hands neatly behind his back. Sam looking more worn than Michael had ever seen him, holding Claire against his chest like a shield. And then there was her.

If Michael Westen had ever needed Fiona Glenanne more than he did now, he couldn't remember when. He ached to touch her, but at the same time seemed as rooted as the trees. She kept skimming her stomach with her fingertips, and he could squint and make out the soft roundness there. He'd never seen her 'a little bit' pregnant. It made her look younger somehow. At some point, she turned her head towards him, he wondered if he'd willed her to do it or if it was just years of watching her own back.

He watched her face, heard her voice catch as she broke away from Sam and started towards him before nearly breaking into a run. He stepped forward then, the wind blowing at his unbuttoned suit jacket as she launched herself at him.

And all he could do was hold onto her while everything else fell apart around him.

…...


	7. Chapter 7

Claire had been crying somewhat frantically when her parents made it back to the grave-site. She clutched onto Sam tightly, even a few seconds after her father's arms had reached for her and she'd started to wail 'Daddy' over the frantic gasps and sniffs.

Michael had dropped back into a chair running his hands over soft dark locks whispering and mumbling to her.

"I've got you Baby Girl." He sighed, as her fingers finally relaxed against his neck. "I've got you."

Sam told the minister to go on and start through his clenched throat. The man didn't hear him until Jesse stepped in and relayed the message in a stronger tone. Fiona had gone stoic again. Her hand clamped firmly on Michael's shoulder as she stood.

She looked angry, Nate thought. Maybe she should be. Maybe someone should be angry.

At Michael, or their mother or at the whole damned situation. He wasn't really sure which, beside him his wife snorted before leaning in and whispering.

"Fatten a calf.." She said wryly. "The prodigal son has returned yet again."

He didn't have the energy to explain to her that didn't make sense. It was s_laughter_ a fatten calf. Not fatten it. It was _already_ fat. He looked at his round children and winced.

"Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed," When the preacher started speaking the words seemed louder in his head then they should be. Nate's eyes dropped to his brother. "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed."

He thought, for the first time in a long time, about what it must mean to be Michael Westen. Maybe for the first time ever it didn't seem appealing.

"For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory.'"

Nate looked at his own wife, baby on her hip eyes faced forward at the minister. At the end of the day, she was tactless and over indulgent. At the end of the day she was also loyal, and kind and she thought he could do anything he put his mind to. At the end of the day they put their children to sleep and sat on the couch watching movies and talking about which of the limos needed to be serviced and which of the drivers needed to be praised or reprimanded.

He'd never been faced with stopping a war or freeing hostages. He'd never had to kiss his two day old baby goodbye or hear about his mother's death in a telegram. At the end of the day, he was at home. With is children. With Ruth. And it was.. nice.

"O death, where is thy victory? Oh death, where is thy sting?'"

It was almost a strange sensation _not_ to be jealous of his brother. It was not entirely pleasant to find himself feeling sorry for him.

…...

_I told them that you were the perfect son. That you always wrote me, you called me all the time, and that the most important thing to you was family. I told them that. And they wrote it down. _

"Michael?" He closed his eyes, bringing himself back to the present, turning his head to look at his wife, standing in the doorway of her bedroom looking in at him. "Hi."

His lips cracked into a smile and he reached out his hand to her. She slid onto his lap, crossing her arms behind his head. He rubbed the base of her skull with one hand while tracing the subtle curve of her lap with the other and narrowing his eyes.

"We 100% sure now?" He asked her, a hint of playfulness in his usual flat tone.

"Five months sure." She bent and straightened her fingers gently against his neck. She looked tired, but somehow serene. "I was going to do something creative Michael. Sam and I were bouncing around ideas of how to tell you when Claire slipped up and ruined it." She shook her head. "It's not like I was trying to hide it." He grinned slowly tipping his head down to look at her pointedly. She shook her head with a grin. "_This time_."

He took a long breath and let it out slowly. She leaned in a little closer, kissing him quickly.

"Are you happy?" She asked with a familiar insecurity he thought he'd long since banished in her voice. "I mean it was a _happy_ surprise right?" He framed her small face with his large hands and nodded at her before kissing her again.

"Happy.." He muttered as she pulled him in for a tight hug. "Terrified."

"It worked out okay the last time didn't it?" The security was back in her tone and he let his eyes shut in relief as he nodded into her shoulder.

She started to straighten up, but he wouldn't let go, burrowing deeper into the crook of her neck. She slid her palms over the back of his head and sighed, knowing they needed to talk about the elephant in the room, but not wanting to.

She knew he was trying to give her a few moments, just for them and she appreciated that. It gave her time to get her strength up. Collect her bearings now that one of her landmarks had suddenly disappeared. She knew Michael's emotional connection to his his mother was stronger, but her own was more constant. More necessary. Madelyn Westen had been the mother she longed for, the sister she'd lost and the friend she'd never let herself have. And now she was dead. And Fiona found herself alone once again.

_Not alone_. She though, feeling the faint flutter kicks of her baby and the hot breath of her husband on the nape of her neck. _Not really alone_. She forced him back, pressing her fingertips to his cheeks and looking him over.

"You should rest." She decided. "Sam and Nate took the kids to get ice cream and Jesse's letting Ruth help him garden in the back yard." She made a face.

"I'm okay." He argued weakly, but she was already pulling him to the bed, climbing backwards across the sheets on her knees. His face broke into his actual smile at her insistence. This.. this was why he'd fallen in love with Fiona years ago. She simply would not take no for an answer.

"She invited half the funeral goers for dinner tonight. You'll need the rest." She sang as he laid on his side she shimmied her body off the other edge of the bed and pressed her arms forward to hold her gaze level with his. "We might have to kill her later." He widened his eyes and nodded as she pushed up and sat next to him. He curved into a C until his head rested on her thigh. "She was sick Michael, but I didn't think she was going to-." She whispered stopping her words and the strokes she'd began through his hair at the same time. "She'd known for a few months and she didn't tell me. I think Sam knew." She took a shaky breath and he wrapped his hand around her knee, slowly watching his thumb caress her kneecap as she spoke. "I'm pretty sure Sam knew. Then Jesse.. I guess no one bothered to think I might need a warning." She huffed. "She had a really hard time breathing.. um.. a few days ago and Sam took her to Mercy and.. she never came home."

He pressed his eyes shut.

"I didn't go Michael." She whispered. "Sam said she wasn't.. um.. awake.. so I didn't-."

" 's okay, Fi."

"Is it?" She sniffed, "She would have thrown a fit Michael!" He grinned a little, she would have. "She would have wanted me to drop everything and rush-."

"Fiona I was **in** _Kor-e-a_. I'm the one guilty of not being there, not you." He said, rolling off her lap and opening his arms to her. She dropped gratefully into them. "She would have wanted you there.. but she wouldn't have _expected_ you there." He clarified. "Hell she would have wanted all of us there, weeping with lit candles." His wife snickered. "And if that's what she expected she should have given us a little more notice." He told her evenly.

"I don't know what I'm going to do with out her Michael." Fiona whimpered breathlessly.

…...

"Are you guys gonna be okay?" Nate asked suddenly, spinning on his heals to look at Axe. Sam wrinkled his eyebrows in surprise before putting on his game face.

"Sure." He smiled. "We'll be fine."

"How?" Nate insisted shaking his head. "I mean. It's basically just you and Fi now. How are you going to work a job? And who's going to watch after my niece and keep her safe from the bad guys while you're out riding Miami of all the drug-lords and con artists? And Fi's pregnant for God sakes she can't be out there.. doing.. what you guys do." He kept shaking his head. "And you know you're not a young guy Sam."

Sam looked at Claire silently licking at her frozen yogurt while her cousins laughed and played with laps full of chocolate sundae's and sprinkles.

"How you gonna keep Claire in that school with the good security and the smart people curriculum and stuff?"

Sam lowered his head and put his hands in his pockets.

"Mike sends money." He told him.

"And when he gets caught up in North Korea's war?" Nate continued. "Will his top secret pension pay for the massive amount of therapy Claire's going to need when Fiona goes completely nuts and blows up half of Miami?"

"Hey hey!"

"I'm not saying he's the dead beat dad that my wife tries to make him out to be, but she does have a point Sam. Michael is.. he's all about Michael. Even if he doesn't mean to be. Who's looking out for Fi and Claire and the baby now that Mom's.." He stopped looking down at his feet.

"I am." Sam said calmly. "I am." He clapped his hand on Nate's arm in very paternal gesture. "She was so proud." He grinned. "Of who you became. Of your family." Nate snorted.

"She thought Ruth was a rude and that my kids were fat little foul mouths."

"But they were _you're_ fat little foul mouths, and she loved them." Sam chuckled. "I don't think anyone ever accused Madelyn Westen of being _polite_ either you know."

Nate smiled at that.

"She depended on Michael you know? And no matter how many times he let her down she always forgave him."

"Mike is what he is, Nate." Sam sighed. "A lot of the parts of him that might have kept him from being able to walk away so easy were knocked out of him by your dad."

"Yeah." Nate muttered, dropping to a bench and folding his hands. "It all goes back to dear old Dad."

"No." Sam looked back at Claire. "He's forty two.. at some point it falls on the man himself."

…...

"Jesse?" Westen stood in the door way of the weapons shed as Jesse examined the small corner that was actually full of 'shed-like' items until he came up with a long green hose.

"Hey Mike." He started rolling the long tangled mess around his arm. "How is it Fi's arsenal is in perfect form but the garden hose is in a knotted heap?"

"I need your help."

"Anything. I've already told Fiona that I'll get all the legal stuff out of the way about the will and-."

"I need a job, Jes." The spy closed his eyes.

"Ah Mike are you really going to do this like..?" He held up his arms and let them drop. "Every four years?"

"Jesse."

"You're not Counter Intelligence. You'll never be Counter Intelligence and you don't want to be Counter Intelligence!"

"I want to be home!" He yelped. "With my wife and my kids."

"Then quit." He said shaking his head back and forth.

"It's not that simple."

"It never is with you!"

"I need an agency, Jesse. I need protection. I have not spent my career doing nice clean things for nice clean people! There are people that will come after me _and my family _if I am not protected."

"It's the job of your agency-."

"I don't have one! I never did. No one is going to spend any time or resources protecting some rouge spy with a questionable background from-."

"Then you should have thought about that." Jesse hissed. "Seven years ago."

"What?"

"We sat at the counter in your loft and gave you a choice. Destroy or Rejoin. You picked rejoin. You went back in." Porter pointed to him. "You didn't think about Fiona or Sam or your_** mom**_. You didn't think about what was going to happen ten years down the road. It was about redeeming your reputation. So.. congratulations.. that's what you're stuck with. Your reputation."

"Jesse-."

"Now I have to go back out there and run interference between your wife and your brother's or we'll have to have Ruth's funeral tomorrow." Porter shook his head before backing out of the shed and back to Ruth with the hose trailing behind him.

…...

"Mom?" Claire poked her head in the door to her grandmother's bedroom. Fiona stood staring at the open closet.

"Where have _you_ been?" Fiona blinked feigning ignorance.

"The boardwalk." She rolled her eyes and climbed onto the bed. Fi ignored the way that Claire searched the room with her eyes. "What are you looking for?"

"I'm not sure." She traced over the over the top shirts. "I'm just.. looking.."

"For something of Grandma's?" Her voice was soft and Fiona watched her stretch out on Madelyn's bed.

"I'm not sure." Fi repeated, watching her daughter nibble at the side of her lip before her eyes darted away.

"Where's Daddy?" She tried not to sound concerned.

"Um.." Fi lifted her shoulders. "I think he went to talk to Uncle Nate."

"What does Counter Intel mean?" She asked.

"Paper protectors." Fiona shook her head.

"Like Jesse." Claire said softly.

"Why?"

"Jesse told Uncle Sam he had to turn Daddy down for Counter Intel." Claire looked at her mom. "We could just protect Daddy's papers in the fire safe."

Fiona kept her face even, before smiling.

"That's a wonderful idea McBride. I'll pass it along."

"I could use a wonderful idea right now." Michael's voice startled her, and Claire made room for him on the bed, patting the mattress beside herself.

"I was saying you could keep your papers in the fire safe." She pointed to the closet. Michael looked at Fiona who smiled at him pointedly.

"Sure.." He said smartly, sitting down beside her. "What are you looking for?"

"Nothing." She backed up and joined them on the bed. "I was just thinking about the house. Last night Ruth and Nate got here and I hadn't even thought about where everyone should go you know? So Sam gave up his room and slept on Claire's bed and I took Claire in my room with me and no one slept in here." She looked around. "I didnt want that woman to-." She stopped short, glancing at Claire before Micael nodded slowly. "So. I started thinking about how it's not really fair to Sam and that those children shouldn't be exposed to all our_ things_ anyway. So I was thinking of moving us in here and giving your brother my room." She watched Claire finger Madelyn's bed spread sticking her fingers in the eyelets of the pillow sham. "But um.. I'd need some room.." She looked in the closet.

"You don't have to do this tonight." He breathed.

"I have to do it sometime Michael." She whispered. "There might be things Nate wants. Or something you might want to take with you?" He shook his head. "I have to pick out something for Virgil."

"_Virgil_."

"He was very sweet to her Michael!" She huffed, standing up and sliding some clothes out of the way. "And I know she has Christmas presents for the three little pigs back here somewhere."

Claire giggled and her father poked her with his index finger before grinning.

"There's just a lot of stuff." Fiona sighed.

"Hey Claire?" Jesse's voice made Michael's back stiffen. "Sam says your friend from school Abbey James is here.. and he thinks she needs you to rescue her from your cousin Francie."

The little girls eyes widened before she scrambled off the bed and out the door. Jesse stood there.

"Was there something else?" Fiona asked sharply, letting both men know she'd already heard about their little conversation.

"Look Mike." He sighed. "I'm sorry about the way that went down. I'm not changing my mind. I just-." He grunted uncomfortably. "Your mom just died man. We shouldn't be taking shots at each other in a shed."

Michael was about to remind him he hadn't taken any shots before he felt Fiona's hand on his leg.

"I appreciate that Jesse." She said softly. "But if you don't mind, Michael and I really just want to be alone right now."

"Sure.. that's cool, but just so you know you guys are really going to owe Sam some mojitos. He's been on Nate duty all day." He cocked his head. "And Claire's been surrounded by those cousins of hers."

He clapped his hands and backed up into the hall.

"He's right. Sam probably needs a break." Michael sighed as Fiona sat beside him on the bed.

"Claire too." Fi raised her eyebrows.

"I could put Nate and the piglets up in a hotel." He looked at her and she nodded slowly. "Could put us up in a hotel. In Paris or Mexico or something." She smiled at him. "Grab Sam and the kid. We could go to Bath have your mother come down for the week?"

"That sounds lovely." She whispered, streaching out beside him on the bed. "It also sounds a lot like running away."

"What's so wrong with running away?" He asked.

"You're good at it Michael." She breathed, soothing her harsh words with a light kiss.

"Is it still running if I take you all with me?"

"Sam might not want-."

"Sam doesn't have anything more holding him here then we do."

"Claire's school-."

"There are schools in Bath, and London and even Moscow."

"You're daughter's Russian is as bad as Sam's." His wife laughed.

"Fiona I'm serious." He spit the words out of his mouth, looking at her intently. "Jesse was my only chance at Miami." Fi looked down at the mattress. "If I'm getting out? We have to leave."

"Michael.."

"We came because they stuck me here. We stayed because my mom was here. We can go now Fi." He dropped his head to look in her eyes. "We _should_ go now."


	8. Chapter 8

"Let's do it. I'll pack." Sam snorted, setting his beer back on the round table.

"Seriously?" Fiona whispered, resting her palm against her belly.

"Fi.. this is what you've wanted for-." He shook his head. "Ever."

"Don't you think its a little too good to be true?"

"You're afraid to be happy." Sam pointed at her accusingly.

"This is Michael. He's grieving. He'll change his mind." She looked close to tears and Sam couldn't help but consider her side. She always did that to him. Truth be told as much as Claire Westen had the big man wrapped around her finger, her mother did probably just as tightly. "He'll change his mind and we'll be in_ Moscow_ with Claire and the baby.."

"We'll be okay Fi." Sam told her firmly. "No matter what." He stood up and put his hands on her shoulder. "I'm in this. For you and Claire and _her brother_.."

"She's going to kill me if it's a sister." Fiona sighed.

"Don't even think it!" He pretended to be aghast.

"He'll never even know his Grandmother." She whispered, her lips becoming a tight thin line.

"We'll tell him." Sam whispered.

"So..We go?"

"We go." He said softly patting her shoulders.

"I'm gonna call Seymour. If we're doing this I'm going to have to ship all the semi's and assault rifles through his channels. How many exactly do we have?"

"Fi I have no-."

"I'll count!" She nodded, starting towards the shed. He waited for her to go before sighing and picking up his beer.

"It's not nice to stand in doorways and eavesdrop." He finally muttered, lowering himself into his chair.

"Sorry Sam." Michael stepped down from the kitchen and into the apartment. Axe shrugged, reaching under the table into a mini fridge and handing Michael a beer. "Should I be concerned that my wife needed to check with you in the middle of the night before agreeing to run away with me?"

"Probably." Sam looked at him. "But I understand her thinking."

"Sam. I'm not going to-."

"I know." He stopped him. "But she didn't just meet you yesterday Michael. She knows you. Probably better than anyone." Sam took a long sip of his new beer. "She's been hurt by you more than anyone."

"More than you?"

"I love you Brother, but I don't _love _you."

"Speaking of love? Wouldn't a move ruin things with your current lady friend?" Michael sighed.

"Mike, the only special lady in my life these days is into web-kins, Polly Pockets and 1980's Russian Intelligence files." He grinned his best Sam Axe grin before tipping back the rest of the beer. "I vote Barcelona. Weathers better than London."

"No Spanish." Michael reminded him.

"You are a master of language Mikey, raised in Miami. I think you can pick it up." His friend snorted.

…...

"What do you mean leaving?"

"There's no reason to stay." He looked around the room.

"You're taking them with you to Korea?" The other man looked at him like he was insane.

"No." Michael said sharply. "Someplace else. I'm.. I'm getting out Nate."

"For real?" His brother asked skeptically.

"No one believes a thing I say in this family." Michael muttered to himself before looking back at his brother. Nate looked smug. "Yes, for real."

"Sam okay'ed this?"

"Since when does Sam have to okay the things I do?" The older Westen brother squinted his eyes.

"Since he stepped into the life you walked out on.. again.. and kept us all from going insane." Nate shot back at him. Michael took a step back, running his tongue over his teeth. _That one hurt._

"Fair enough." He breathed heavily, putting his hands on his hips. "Fair enough."

"Truth kinda stings huh?" Nate raised an eyebrow.

"Sam's on board. He's-." He swallowed back the faint feelings of betrayal. He knew he deserved them.

"What about the house?" Nate said more softly.

"The house?" His hands were still poised on his hips.

"Well I'm assuming Sam's not just gonna hang out while you take Claire halfway across the world?"

"He's coming." Michael nodded.

"Then what about Mom's house?" He looked around slowly.

"You want it?"

"No." Nate said quickly. "No. No."

"Then I guess we'll sell it. Jesse can take care of things." Michael put that on his mental to do list.

"Seriously Michael?" Nate asked softly. "You're 'sell Mom's house' sure that your getting out?"

Westen's eyes raised to his siblings before he nodded quickly.

"You should take what you want." Michael looked around the room. "Ruth and the kids too. Just you know.. double check with Fiona..."

"Yeah.." Nate looked vaguely afraid what would happen if he didn't. Michael smiled. "Sam already asked me about some of her little winter sculpture things.." He rolled his eyes.

"Yeah.. it was an inside thing with them." Michael sucked in his lips.

"Do you think he loved her?" Nate asked, peeling away from his brother and standing in front of the shelf of snow people.

"Mom?" Michael almost snickered. "Not really Sam's type."

"I don't know." Nate picked one up and gave it a quirky look before setting it down. "Towards the end.."

"I don't know."

"God knows he'd have been more fun then _Virgil._" His brother laughed. Michael winced before sitting on the ugly sofa. "Or dad. Sam's a good guy. Would have been a good Dad."

"Nate?" His brother's soft voice made him turn towards him. "Um.. I want you to take the Charger."

The man's mouth opened slightly.

"The Charger?"

"You have to promise me that you'll take care of it." He said with the slightest edge in his voice. "It's gotten us out of a lot of jams. It.. means a lot to all of us."

"I'll take good care of it Mike." Nate promised with a single nod.

"Don't let your kids eat in it." Michael warned, earning a scowl from his brother before the two of them broke into a pair of matching grins. "You know an apple wouldn't kill them."

Nate picked up a knickknack and tossed it at his brothers head.

"Hey!" He snorted before looking at him somberly. "You turned out okay.."

"What?" Nate stopped laughing, Michael's face was soft. Brotherly. _Fatherly_.

"I just wanted you to know I'm proud of you. You turned out okay."

…...

Michael hugged each pudgy niece and his nephew before politely patting Ruth's shoulder and turning to Nate.

His brother smiled at him before Michael wrapped him tightly, gripping the back of his shirt in his fists.

"This isn't goodbye?" Nate tried to laugh lightly.

"Nah of course not." Michael lied before letting go and turning to the charger. He laid his palms on the hood for a few seconds before pushing off , "Extra spark plugs in the glove box. You'll need gas after you drop them off at the airport..." He looked at Nate a little too longingly.

"I'll take care of it." He promised again. "You take care of them." He gestured towards where Fiona stood with Claire. Westen nodded, never looking away as Sam gave Nate a hug and helped the kids into the Charger.

"She's a little sticky when you're shifting over 80." Sam informed him, patting the roof of the old car.

"I'll try and remember that." Nate teased, still looking at Michael as he climbed in. The spy looked away, studying the ground at his feet. His brother honked the horn as he pulled away Fiona wrapped her arms around his waist. Sam walked back into the garage.

"You should have told him." She whispered.

"No. I shouldn't have." He shook his head slowly.

"He'll suspect." She sounded close to tears.

"Jesse's going to tell him not to suspect too loudly."

"Okay." He clasped her hands in his.

"You sure you got everything out you wanted?" He raised his eyebrow pointedly.

"Yeah."

"Claire?" His eyebrow rose.

"Checked and double checked." She pressed tighter. "Did you?"

"Yeah." He breathed, turning to face her and reaching down to the duffel bag at his feet. He pulled out a little blue sleeper, holding it with both hands and running his thumbs over the top.

She laid her head on his shoulder.

"We ready to do this?" Sam reappeared with a single panel of gaudy drapes tossed over his shoulder and two winter scene figurines in his hands. Michael couldn't help but grin.

Fiona nodded softly before turning to Claire and handing her the little sleeper.

"Go with Jesse. We'll be along shortly." She said quietly. Claire gave a long look to the house she'd been born in. The only house she'd ever really lived in. Jesse squeezed her shoulders.

"I got frozen yogurt in a bag on the front seat. With sprinkles." She grinned at him. "Go ahead I'll be right there." He looked at her mother as she closed the car door. "You promise just enough right, Fi? It's gonna be harder to explain if the whole street goes-."

"Just enough Jesse." She sighed.

Michael locked her fingers in his own.

"You can sell this?"

"I learned from the best." Jesse announced flatly, nodding at Michael. "Barry and I mapped out the landing sight last night, Claire and I will head straight there."

"Thanks Jesse." Michael sighed.

"Take care, Brother." Sam hugged him, handing him Madelyn's memorabilia and draping him with the curtain, watching as he walked back to Claire and drove away. Sam looked at Mike and Fi and sighed. "Let's do this."

"My mother's rolling in her grave." Michael groaned.

"She'd be happy for us." Fiona scolded. Michael gave her a relenting nod before looking up to see Barry pull to a stop at the cross street..

"Be careful." Fiona sighed, kissing her husband firmly before jogging over to Barry and sliding into the car.

Sam and Michael waited for the jogger that Sam had stalked out for them.

"Show time." He announced when he saw her, walking Sam up the drive. "Sorry I have no idea..."

"That's alright!" He held his hand up to the jogger. "Maybe she knows?" The woman stopped, looking at him helpfully. "I'm looking for _456.." _The lady started to point as Michael headed back and started into the house. "Thanks Mr. Westen!" He yelled back towards him. "Nice guy, saw me out here and came to see if he could help. No sense of direction though." He stalled her. "So you know.." She pointed again and Sam walked her back to the corner, still feigning confusion.

Then the house blew up.

"Oh My God!" The jogger screamed while Sam did his best to look mortified. It wasn't Fi's best work, but it had done it's job. "Oh my God that man was in there!"

"We.. we need to call for help!" Sam yelled. "Do you have a phone?" The jogger shook her head, pressing her hand to her mouth. "I'll go knock on some doors!" Yelled, stumbling off until breaking into a jog and heading around the corner just in time to catch Michael climb into the car with Barry. Axe slid in next to the driver, clapping the man on the shoulder.

"Well done." Barry admired before taking off down the street as the sirens started to blare.

…...

"What about his wife and child?" Monica asked slowly.

"Best I can tell a buddy of his, Sam Axe, panicked and got Fiona the hell out of here."Jesse tapped the end of his pencil against the desk.

"Damn." Michael's handler sighed again. "I trust you're going to handle this?"

"I guarantee you I'll find who did this and take care of it." Jesse tapped a framed photo of Claire on his desk. "The local bomb squad said it was very intricate. Professional."

"I should have let him go in July when he asked." Monica whispered more to herself then to him.

"He asked in July?" Jesse exhaled slowly.

"For about the hundredth time. I always found ways to keep him. He was good you know." She was almost wistful.

"I know." Jesse sighed. "Monica, I'm going to do what I can, but I need you to make sure Fiona and the kids stay off the grid. I'm worried about their safety."

"Of course." Monica breathed. "Do you know what she'll be going by? Is she keeping Westen?"

"Not yet. She has a family friend in the UK, a guy named McBride. I wouldn't be surprised if she went to him. She might take that on."

"Fiona and Claire McBride. Got it." She sighed. "And the baby?"

"Michael." Jesse almost grinned before pressing his lips together and replying sorrowfully. "Michael McBride."

"Alright." She sighed. "We're all really upset about this here. Michael was a good man."

"He was." Jesse swallowed hard. "I'm going to miss him."

…...

"My brother's being born right now." Claire McBride grinned excitedly at the woman beside her.

"How nice." The woman lilted softly, looking at Sam before looking back at her magazine with a smile.

"Claire.." Sam warned. "I just want to make sure that if it's a sister-."

"It's not." She said quickly. "It's a brother."

She held up the blue sleeper to him as if it was proof. Sam grunted softly.

"We'll see."

…...

"Mathew." Fiona panted softly, unclench her hands from where Michael's rested on the bed rail. He let go of the cold metal and moved her hair from her face.

"Don't you have a nephew named Mathew?"

"Do I?"She stretched her back a little and he pressed the butt of his hand against it, rubbing firmly. She pushed her palm against his chest.

"Sheamus' third or fourth.." He squinted.

"Possibly." She shrugged. "You're better with names then I am."

He contemplated that for a few seconds, still working his hand against her back.

"Benjamin." He pursed his lips.

"Ben McBride?" She snorted. "Seriously Michael." The word gained a uneasy sharpness as she finished it, before her breathing became broken and unsteady. Her husband winced, pulling her hand off his chest and wrapping it in his own. "Ah.."

"Breathe." He whispered soothingly. "Breathe, breathe, breathe." She nodded, her eyes rolling up before closing slowly. "I thought since you were having this baby in a hospital.. you'd maybe get the pain medication."

"They want to stick a needle in my spine Michael." She growled. "I don't know if you've noticed but this isn't exactly Mount Sinai." He winced with her before looking around again.

"Fair point." He whispered.

…...

"I want the epidural." She cried, her arms shaking against his own. "Michael, I want the epidural."

"It's too late for that!" The fat nurse smiled cheerfully. Michael was glad he had a firm grip on her thigh because he was sure, even in the middle of hard labor, Fiona would have kicked the woman's teeth right out of her mouth. "I can see a whole lot going on down there."

"Get her away from me Michael!" Fiona screamed, panting back against him. "I swear to God I'm going to-." She stopped her mouth erupting into a frantic scream as her little body pushed back against him with unthinkable force.

"There we go." The fat nurse sang. "Doctor Baur, I'm thinking you should get your gloves on."

"I'm thinking he should have his gloves on." Michael grunted, as Fiona's fingernails dug into the hands he had behind her knees.

"She's stronger than she looks." The doctor said quickly still struggling with one drug. "Ease up a little Mother."

"Don't push Fi." Michael whispered into her ear. She turned her face into him.

"Michael..I.. it.." She panted against him pleadingly.

"Just a little longer." He promised as the Doctor finally moved himself into place.

"Okay then." The man said softly. "The next one and then we'll have ourselves a baby."

"_We?" _His wife accused before her body arched again. "Oh! I'll kill him too!""

"Just push Fiona." Michael suggested evenly as she groaned against him.

…...

"Well it's done then." Sam looked up at the nurse before looking down at the little girl asleep in his lap. "I'm guessing you'll want to come and take a look."

Sam nodded with a smile, pausing just before lifting Claire.

"Is it.." He looked at the lady again. "Please tell me it's a boy."

…...

Claire McBride (Westen) had never been a smug child, but sitting atop her Uncle Sam's lap with the tiny blue sleeper-ed baby in her arms she was clearly smug.

"Told you." She muttered loudly.

"Yes.. McBride you told us all." Fiona sighed, trying to sound aggravated despite the wide smile on her face. She leaned back into Michael feeling his arms wrap around her still relatively thin waist. "Patrick."

"Peter." Michael puffed out his cheeks.

"Samuel." Sam said brightly, Fiona and Michael shared a look before shaking their heads at him in unison.

"Congratulations!" The fat nurse waddled in handing Fiona a blue quilt with sailboats on it. "Courtesy of Maddox-Brax Medical Clinic." Fiona almost felt bad for threatening her. Almost.

"Maddox." Michael said slowly, before dropping into his best Irish Accent. "Maddox Glenanne McBride."

His son let out a yell in either protest or support. Sam snorted and Fiona stilled.

"Maddox." Claire said softly, tracing his baby cheek. "He likes it."

"Maddox it is then." Fiona whispered.

…...


	9. Chapter 9

**_loose ends tied? check._**

**_..._**

In the end they'd settled as an Irish family in Guernsey, an island on between England and France. It had been in part to because of the way Claire's eyes had lit up at a bookstore in Whales where they had waited for Maddox to make his arrival.

"It's Grandma's book." The little girl had said, grabbing a copy of _The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society_and spinning it around and around in her hands. "How did they get it in Whales?"

Fiona had bought it immediately, pressing her lips together and hurrying a very happy Claire to the car before the tears started to slide down her face.

Michael had read it one weekend while hiding from Fiona's family as they took turns coming over from Ireland to visit.

"We can't stay here Fi." He'd whispered softly that night when Maddox had woken them both up so he could nurse. "They'll expose us."

"I know." She told him simply, no fight left in her voice.

"This is what I didn't want for you Fiona." He sighed, tracing his finger from her shoulder to her elbow before squeezing. "Running from your own family.."

"This is exactly what I wanted for me Michael." Told him, reaching up and covering his hand with hers. "This right here."

He'd called Jesse in the morning. Told him they'd be headed towards Guernsey by the end of the month.

"I've been taking to Nate." Jesse sighed.

"Yeah." Michael breathed, his brother had believed in his _perfectly timed _untimely demise a little easier than he had hoped. But Nate wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the corner of the weapons shed.

"He wants to see Fiona and the kids. Says he needs to know they're alright." Michael sighed as Jesse continued. "I hear that pony trekking in Whales is something no little girl should miss."

"The whole family?" Micheal whined.

"Looks less suspicious that way don't you think?"

"Yeah." He blew a long breath out from between his lips and tried to think of how to tell Fiona.

…...

Nate and his broad had arrived early one morning just before Christmas. Sam opened the door with an over enthusiastic cheer. Ruth looked sour faced at him before yelping like she'd just seen a ghost.

The ghost of Michael Westen to be exact , sprawled out on the sofa in the small cottage den.

"Calm down. Calm down." Sam had instructed her softly after Nate stood firmly planted in his spot.

"Mike?" His brother finally muttered.

"Nate." It was the same sharp blank tone his brother had regarded him with his whole life. Despite that Nate Westen had to choke back tears.

"God, you Bastard I thought I was all alone." He muttered into his shoulder after Michael finally stood up and he had grabbed him impulsively. Fiona pressed her lips together over Nate's shoulder just before Michael's eyes blinked shut.

…...

"You blew up Mom's house?" Nate breathed before reaching over his sleeping son to grab his beer. Michael winced a little, before making a face at Maddox who was studying him seriously from the little seat thingy he was strapped into.

"Fiona blew up Mom's house." Michael corrected.

"Felt good though didn't it?" Nate asked, his eyes crinkling round the edges (in a way that reminded Michael of is mother) as he chuckled. "Blowing up mom's house."

"It did feel kind of good." He admitted with a nod before taking a sip of his drink.

"Man."

"I'm sorry Nate. I really am. I didn't think you'd believe it when Jesse told you. He had a whole speech planned about the importance of secrecy and-."

"I didn't." He interrupted sharply. "I didn't believe it."He smiled at his only sibling. "At first I just waited for Fiona to call. Then after a few months I started thinking-."

"I'm sorry." Michael rubbed his forehead with his index finger.

"It's okay. I get it. I do." He said again. "I'm just-. Well I'm just glad you aren't particles stuck to to the little pieces left of what used to be Mom's house." He raised an eyebrow at him before starting to laugh again. Michael joined him. "Man! Fiona liked vaporized that shit."

Maddox started to whimper and Michael's eyes went wide.

"Shit." He hissed, looking at his watch and then at the front door.

"What?"

"How long's this pony thing last anyway?"

"I don't know. Another hour or so I guess." Nate shrugged. "Why?"

"Shit." Michael said again when Maddox's whine turned into a choppy baby cry. He stood up quickly and rushed to the counter, muttering. "At least its not frozen this time.."

"What's the problem?" Nate asked shaking is head before laying Mikey in his stroller and taking a long hard look at his nephew."Is he okay?"

"No. He's hungry." His brother barked. "And he and I are not very good at this." Michael held up the bottle to him. "And he has his mother's temper."

"Let me help." Nate said calmly, as Michael unstrapped the baby like he was managing explosives and spun him around, grabbing the bottle and trying to force it in his mouth. The baby's head reared back like the nipple was full of battery acid.

"Seriously, Dude let me help."

"Unless you can produce milk.. there's nothing you can do." Michael announced. "Our only hope is to get it in his little mouth before he realizes that it's not what he wants."

"Have you even done this before?" Nate winced, watching his brother sneak up on the baby with the bottle again.

"We've been trying.." Michael almost whined. "He just doesn't like me."

"Wonder why?" Nate teased watching Michael press the nipple into the baby's wailing mouth again. "Geez stop it already!" He snatched the bottle back from him. "I've got three kids, Bro. All breastfed. I _may_ have a little more experience at this then you."

Michael raised his free hand in dubious surrender before slinging his other arm, with his son in it, at his brother. Nate bounced him a few times before cooing emphatically at the baby's howls.

"It's alright. Hey it's alright, Little Man." He tucked his nephew close to his chest, keeping his eyes locked on the baby's. Michael watched his brother shush and bounce until the bottle magically appeared just next to his cheek. "Here. Look. You want this?" He asked softly as the baby turned his head and cautiously accepted the nipple. "I know it's not as nice as when Mommy does it." He told him quietly. "But Uncle Nate does it better than Daddy, doesn't he?" Maddox sucked in agreement, closing his eyes in relief.

"You got him to-." Michael stopped talking, shaking his head slowly before settling back down in his seat.

"Didn't you do this with Claire?" Nate asked, finally looking up.

"Claire was sixteen hours and nine minutes old when I left." Michael reported with painstaking accuracy. "The next time I saw her she was eating with a spoon and holding her own juice cup."

Nate looked at him for a minute before looking back at Maddox.

"Okay.. well.. this time.. " He came around behind his brother lifting his nephew over his shoulder and lowering him down slowly.

"Nate." Michael was already shaking his head no.

"This time.." His sibling told him sharply, waiting until Michael to took the baby. "..is your do over." He let him settle in before lifting the bottle just enough to catch Michael's attention and the older Westen gripped it himself. The baby made the tiniest noise of irritation and Michael's eyes widened in fear. "Shh.." Nate told him, exaggeratedly bouncing his brothers arms.

The infant's right eyelid lifted enough to shoot his father a very Michael Westen like look before shutting again.

"Thank you." Nate strained to hear his brothers soft gratitude before shrugging.

"How often is it that I get to teach you something?"

"I guess." He sighed, looking at Maddox again. "Who taught you?"

Nate grinned.

"Francesca." He snickered. "By the time Lily was born Ruth and I were old pros. That's probably why he gets so fussy with you. Fi and Sam have done this before and it shows. He knows you don't know what your doing."

"Maybe.." His voice lilted as he looked at his son's tiny face.

"How weird is it getting parenting advice from the guy you practically raised?" Michael snorted and Nate continued. "I only know this part better though, when Francie starts stealing cars and stuff you might have to talk me through it."

"Deal." Michael sighed before letting his grin drop off. "I think I'm still scared that one day I'm going to wake up and be dad."

"Yeah.. that goes away." Nate said softly. "You'd never hurt Claire. You'd never say those things."

"Yeah." Michael whispered.

"Sides, Fiona'd kick your ass." Nate added, Michael looked at Maddox and nodded in agreement.

Nate and his family left two days later, the next week Michael lead his people out of Wales.

…...

"Mom?"

"Yes McBride?" Fiona almost huffed, dropping the heavy box she was wrangling towards the shed. The one that her father refused to allow anyone to call the 'amo shed' or the 'weapons shed' any longer. Despite the fact that Claire was quiet sure that it was still stocked just as full as the one in Miami had been.

"_Fiona, normal families do not have weapons bunkers in their backyard." He'd murmured into her hair when she'd called the mailman around back.. to her weapons shed.. with her latest package. _

_She'd raised her eyebrows at him like she was surprised by that. _

"What does E-x-t-r-e-e-m-l-y F-l-a-m-?"

"It means don't tell your father." Fiona finished for her.

Claire looked at her suspiciously.

"It's fire works. For Queens Day."

"I thought that was next month."

"Always prepared McBride." Fiona McBride (Westen) blew a single strand of hair from her face, wiping at it with dirty 'gardening' gloves. "Always prepared."

"Fi?" Came a quick call from the house. Her mother's eyes lit up frantically before she tried and failed to quickly lift the box. "Fi are you back here?"

Claire watched her somewhat frantically try to push the box with her feet before reaching her arms out to her daughter and arranging them on the box like it was a lawn chair.

"Fiona?"

"Michael?"

"Didn't you hear me calling you?" He screwed up his face and moved Maddox from one hip to the other.

"Um. I guess not. I was talking to Claire." She smiled a cat like smile before nudging Claire who smiled as well.

Michael smiled at Claire before turning to his son and raising his eyebrows.

"Sam called. His day trip to Paris just turned into an overnight." Her husband sang the words. Fiona's face paled momentarily before she recovered.

"Must have made a new friend." She let the lower side of her mouth draw down as if she was afraid Claire would understand the _innuendo._

"Yeah.. I hope_ this _'new friend' pays him in European Currency instead of Franks." Westen looked at his son. "I think Barry's trying to skimp him on the conversion rates." He cooed, before starting towards the house. "If you want I can put Mads down for a nap and help you carry your C-4 into the.. shed.." He called back over his shoulder.

"Busted." Fiona exhaled. Claire giggled.

Inside Michael Westen thought of his mother as he explained to his son that Mommy thought she was very smart, but Daddy had her all figured out.

…...

_**A/N**_

_**I'm already writing a sequel. **_

_**:) Loved this story. **_

_**Next week looks **_

_**GGOOOODD!**_


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